Netflix is openings up its online movie and TV-show streaming service to PlayStation 3 owners next month.

The popular DVD-rental company announced the PlayStation deal today and notes that thousands of movies and TV shows will soon be available for anyone with the game console and a Netflix account.

Streaming movies and TV shows from Netflix won’t cost a penny more if you’re already a Netflix customer, where subscription prices start at $8.99 per month. That rate gets a Netflix user access to stream an unlimited number of movies and TV shows right to their big-screen TV, plus the usual rental DVDs by mail.

The main gripe people have with Netflix’s streaming service is the lack of titles, and most particularly, lack of high-definition content. But the service is still relatively new, so, hopefully, the company will soon have its entire catalog of movies and TV shows available online. No more messing with mailing back envelopes.

And as free TV services like Hulu ponder whether to charge, Netflix is one alternative to the millions of paid-TV users who are wondering if paying $50 to $100 or more per month for TV is worth it. Netflix streaming includes TV shows from ABC, CBS, NBC and the Disney Channel.

Netflix says PlayStation 3 owners will need a special Blu-ray disc to enable the free, instant streaming. The disc will be available to all Netflix members. Netflix users can reserve the disc today by going to www.netflix.com/ps3. It will mailed as soon as it’s available.

The Netflix streaming service is also available on TiVo HD players, the Roku digital player, Samsung networked Blu-ray players, LG networked TVs and Blu-ray players, the Xbox 360 and the upcoming Vizio Internet HDTV.

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